'Free Parking for One Year with Move-in Registration'... Comprehensive Population Growth in a City of 410,000

Top Priority in Population Policy: Creating Cities for Future Generations

Significantly Enhancing Benefits of Public Facilities Exclusively for Gumi Citizens

The Future City Planning Office of Gumi City held a regular briefing on the 22nd at the situation room on the 3rd floor of Gumi City Hall, attended by about 50 people including reporters and city officials, to announce the ‘2023 Gumi City Population Policy Basic Plan.’

Prior to the plan announcement, since the launch of the 8th term of the elected government, the city has been focusing all administrative efforts on population recovery as the top priority goal of all policies to proactively respond to the crisis of population decline.

In December last year, the ‘Gumi City Youth Basic Ordinance’ was fully revised to promote youth rights and expand social participation, and in January this year, the Population and Youth Division was newly established along with the enactment of the ‘Gumi City Population Increase Policy Support Ordinance’ to build a proactive response system for population crisis management.

All policies were re-examined from a population perspective, and since October last year, over 70 new projects were discovered across all departments to find innovative tasks that would revitalize the region.

To concretize this and address issues, four policy report meetings were held by March this year, and after gathering opinions from the Gumi City Population Policy Committee, the basic plan announced today was finalized.

At the briefing, Director Bang Joomoon stated, “We will make this year the inaugural year for recovering a population of 410,000,” presenting ‘Preparing for Future Society, Recreating Gumi’ as this year’s population policy vision.

To realize this, he explained, “We will invest a total of about 130 detailed projects and a budget of approximately 130 billion KRW by selecting three major projects?‘Urban Re-Creation Project’ to mitigate population decline and achieve V-shaped turnaround, ‘Future Society Preparation Project’ to expand living population and respond to future demographic changes, and ‘Population Response Administrative Innovation Project’ to support these?along with five strategies and 14 key focus areas.”

▲① Promotion of the ‘Urban Re-Creation Project’ centered on future generations

Gumi City will provide quality jobs by linking study, employment, and entrepreneurship through youth job support projects responding to future strategic industries and fostering local creators. It will strengthen the foundation for youth independence and settlement by supporting youth monthly rent, university student relocation subsidies, and youth jeonse deposit loan interest support, and establish a youth support center within Gumi Station to create a governance platform led by youth, thereby recreating itself as a ‘Youth-Centered Attractive City.’

To foster a childbirth-friendly atmosphere, the city offers full exemption of shared parking fees for families with multiple children (second child or more), expands childbirth congratulatory payments, and increases support for infertility treatment costs. As the next step of the nationally recognized ‘365 Pediatric and Adolescent Medical Center,’ the city plans to more than double the currently operating 19 night-extended childcare facilities, establishing the ‘Gumi-type 365 Our Child Care’ that provides 24/7 temporary childcare services throughout the year.

In particular, to nurture prestigious schools, a T/F team will be activated to specialize existing local elementary, middle, and high schools and promote the attraction of science and technology-oriented international schools linked with the education free special zone, thereby recreating Gumi as a ‘Child-Centered Talent City.’

▲② Promotion of the new ‘Future Society Preparation Project’

The city prepares for an ‘Active New Middle-Aged Era’ by increasing jobs for the new middle-aged population, the core of the aging society, and ensuring a dignified elderly life. Detailed projects include operating the Gumi 50+ Center, supporting second careers, expanding sports facilities, and increasing senior leisure and welfare facilities.

To promote the entry of young and talented individuals into agriculture, the city implements support for young farmers’ settlement and technology dissemination, runs an agricultural internship program, establishes a return-to-farming and rural settlement support center, and provides support projects for rural life, thereby laying the foundation for return-to-farming and rural settlement.

Especially, to respond to the aging trend of farm owners, the city is building future agricultural infrastructure through the creation of a food industry cluster, the Gyeongbuk Digital Innovation Agricultural Town, and a smart farm rental complex, preparing for a ‘Vibrant New Rural Era.’

▲③ Promotion of the ‘Population Response Administrative Innovation Project’

Gumi City will fully launch the ‘Population Response Administrative Innovation Project’ to support the Urban Re-Creation Project centered on future generations and the Future Society Preparation Project.

For citizens living in Gumi but who have not yet changed their address, the city supports relocation by providing moving-in support items, free use of public parking lots for one year, and one-stop guidance for worker dormitories, aiming to mitigate population decline through the spread of the campaign to have a Gumi City address.

To strengthen preferential systems enjoyed only by Gumi citizens, the city will significantly enhance benefits across facilities and projects it operates, such as additional subsidies for eco-friendly vehicles, exclusive operation of park golf courses for Gumi citizens, and discounts on public sports facility usage fees, implementing tangible policies that instill pride in citizens and envy in outsiders.

Support projects for Gumi-based companies and workers will also increase, including expanded operating funds for small and medium enterprises, additional settlement of employment incentives for investment attraction companies, and preferential discounts on equipment usage fees at the Gumi Electronics and Information Technology Institute. The city will also create settlement foundations for incoming populations through urban development projects preparing for an airport hinterland city, promotion of general industrial complexes, attraction of opportunity development special zones, and expansion of large-scale apartment complexes.

With the introduction of a new concept of living population to respond to population decline, the city plans to increase relational population and contribute to regional vitality and the local economy through activation of the hometown love donation system, promotion of the Gumi-type work(+vac)ation, expansion of metropolitan transportation infrastructure, and revitalization of local festivals and tourism.

Mayor Kim Jang-ho said, “This year is an important period that will be a turning point for Gumi City’s growth, so we will focus all our administrative capabilities on population recovery as the top priority,” emphasizing, “Our first priority in city population policy is to create a city for future generations where children can be safely entrusted anytime and anywhere 365 days a year, and where they can receive treatment whenever they are sick.”

Gumi City will continuously monitor the progress of the major projects included in this basic plan, supplement any shortcomings to develop them into premium policies, and lead the era of livable local regions through these efforts.